Love Is Blind’s Lydia Says the ‘Ship Has Sailed’ on a ‘Great Friendship’ with Aaliyah (Exclusive)

Warning: This post contains spoilers from Love is blind season 5

Lydia Velez Gonzalez has no bad blood when it comes to that Love is blind Costar Aaliyah Cosby — but sadly their close friendship is no more.

At the start of Season 5, fans learned that Lydia, 32, was dating costar Uche Okoroha before the show. The revelation was particularly shocking for Aaliyah, who bonded with Uche in the pods and also formed a close friendship with Lydia in the ladies’ quarters.

It was later finally revealed that Aaliyah, 29, left the experiment just before Uche, 34, was going to propose to her because she was fed up with Lydia’s comments about Uche. The two also had a major confrontation on camera that eventually forced Aaliyah to her firing point.

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Speaking about their friendship today, Lydia tells PEOPLE that the two have never been able to find a way back to being close after everything that happened.

“Unfortunately, I think that ship has sailed – our friendship,” she explains. “There’s a lot of hurt there. As you all witnessed, she formed her own conclusions even before she gave me a chance to really experience myself after the cameras were gone.”

He continues: “I respect her choice. I don’t judge her for it and never have [spoken poorly] about her, and I can’t say the same about her about me. So I wish her all the best. He seems to be making progress. We’re not friends anymore.”

From left: Aaliyah, Uche and Lydia from ‘Love Is Blind’ Season 5.

Courtesy of Netflix

Lydia decides to focus on what they shared when they were friends.

“I’m going to stick to the positives, and the best thing we’ve created is a bond, a bond we established very early on, even before we were even dating,” she says. “We had a really great friendship. And I’ll hold on to those moments. And everything that happened after that is unfortunate, it’s really sad. I think she’s a great girl and … I’m happy for her.”

Love is blind‘s Uche opened up about his and Aaliyah’s relationship after the show, which fans didn’t see

Although Aaliyah left the show after that confrontation with Lydia, she later returned for lunch with Uche. During this reunion, Aaliyah was willing to give it another try, but Uche declined the offer, citing his frustrations with Aaliyah’s inconsistencies and up-and-down behavior after the experiment.

“You didn’t trust me and you didn’t trust our relationship,” he said in episode 7. “I think it’s over between us.”

Aaliyah Cosby in capsules on ‘Love Is Blind’.

Netflix

Uche has since claimed na Miss. I understand podcast that they tried to work out their relationship off-camera after that scene, but things didn’t work out in the end.

“Just to clarify, I continued my relationship with her,” he told host Rachel Uchitel. “I know they edited the scene and put in a sound track to make it sound like I kicked her, but that didn’t happen.”

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Uche also claimed that the producers of the Netflix series asked if they would like to return to the show after the reunion, but both said no. “I think they decided to change what happened, because we refused to come back on the show as an engaged couple,” he said. (PEOPLE reached out to representatives for Love is blind regarding these claims.)

During that same lunch meeting, Aaliyah admitted to Uche that she was “questioning” whether he and Lydia were “planning to be here together,” as there was much speculation surrounding the matter. Although Uche denied it at the time, Aaliyah previously told PEOPLE that she wasn’t sure if his answer was sincere.

Uche Okoroha in pods on ‘Love Is Blind’.

courtesy of netflix

“I’m really not sure about a lot at this point, but I just hope they’re both in a better place because I feel like they’ve experienced a lot before the show without really dealing with me much,” she said of Uche and Lydia. “I think it’s for them to kind of share with people if they want to. But now I feel at ease with it.”

“It was kind of hard for me to manage my feelings for a while, but I’m not really sure,” she added. “I don’t know. Maybe we could talk about it more and then we could all figure it out together and get answers together.”

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Despite Lydia’s claims that they are no longer friends, Aaliyah insisted that she is on good terms with both Uche and Lydia. But most of all, she is focused on moving forward.

“I’m in a good place. I respect them both as people,” she said. “I think we all want each other to be happy, and I’m definitely living my best life. I’m happy.”

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Love is blind season 5 is streaming in its entirety on Netflix. The reunion episode airs Sunday at 8:00 PM ET/5:00 AM PT.

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Source: HIS Education